Faithful Catholic or modern-day pharisee? Sometimes I might be a bit of both.

Friday, July 17, 2009

Why my knuckles look like this...

I was in a meeting with a potential client and a potential business partner (PBP), and after everything was done, the PBP and I were talking, and we somehow got on the subject of self-defense. I mentioned that I had been training for about 19 years, but that I'd recently started training in Krav Maga. He smiled and said, "I teach it."

A business relationship made in Heaven (perhaps literally).

Anyway, he had looked across the table at my knuckles, noticed the scrapes and scabs on my knuckles, and thought, "That guy punches stuff." His kids even trained under the person who is training me. Sometimes, I just love how small this valley is. (By the way, Mark, this family comes out of the Nampa/Greenleaf way.)

I have to say it's a bit humbling to start a new art after nearly 20 years of practice. You learn what you don't know and what you've let fall to the wayside.

This particular method was designed to train the IDF in close-combat fighting. Some of the techniques I find rather bizarre because of the way I've been trained to date, but I've also found much to challenge me. There's no point in training a new style if there isn't anything for me to learn. I also like that the method doesn't attempt to mix in quasispirituality in with combatives training.*

By the way, your prayers and good thoughts apparently got me over hurdle one. I have a pre-employment interview with a local police department to determine whether they will accept me as a reserve officer. I'm a bit unsure which direction I need to take, or whether I need to chose a direction but rather a path (that is, choose one path and forfeit the other or wend my way along each until both goals are eventually met). Please pray for my discernment. Also, I want to let you know that Gina is doing well and getting back to normal. We haven't given up hope on adding a new addition, but we will accept God's plan as it is.

*I'm not at all dismissing that some martial arts have spiritual dimensions that are useful or effective in self-defense. However, as a Catholic Christian, I don't believe that Taoist or Cha'an Buddhist practices will help me be any better than my own own devotional practices will.

Wha?

I am a cradle Catholic who drifted away in my teens and wandered. My search
for truth led me to study comparative religion, New Age nonsense, and
philosophy. After 20 years as an agnostic, I came back to a faith that I never
really knew, but which I learn and love more daily. My restless heart now only
wishes to rest in Him. I have masters degrees in English and theology, black
belts in Shotokan karate (Ohshima) and Shaolin-Do kung fu, and classical
training in music that I've all but forgotten. I am a deacon for the Roman Catholic Diocese of Boise. This is a personal blog and does not represent the official views of my parish or diocese.

Coalition for Clarity

Coalition for Clarity

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